Bought one of these, if you play with the gain and pickup height, you can get a cool "teethy" metallic sound. Gain at 4 and volume at 8, sounds cool (no pedals, just fingers, pickup, wire + amp)
The LH-150B was really not bad. Both pickups just have their own character and I would use these for different music styles. The Seymoure Duncan Slug sounds massive. The guitar looks good and it's not expensive. It's a good choice. Great video!
The stock pickup is solid. If it wasn’t for my desire to try out the Slug and tinker with guitars, the guitar would likely stay stock! I do like the aggressive tone and natural compression of the Slug!
Sounds pretty freaking awesome! Creating a pickup with that high resistance without making it sound like a muddy mess can't be easy. SD did a great job with this one. Sounds like it doesn't need an OD to drive the amp, but with the Lichtlaerm (King in Yellow I'm guessing) it becomes really tight and just sweet awesomness.
@@philosopherofkaos8829 I think it needs to go into something that can get a little lower in the tuning… it would work with the whole Baroness, Mastodon vibe! I was also listening to some Crowbar while installing it. It has the right kind of crunch for anything that needs to sound big! If I decide to move the pickup into another guitar at some point, it will be a baritone for sure. I just need to find a single pickup baritone that doesn’t cost as much as 2 months mortgage. 😂 they all seem to be custom builds these days.
I have an old Japanese guitar, it’s called a vantage entertainer and it’s got that same kind of really glossy translucent red finish n it’s beautiful. I Don’t know a lot about the guitar, it was my dads n I got it after he passed a few years ago (RIP Dad, I love you and miss you) that he got in like the 70s but never used it, he liked acoustics, but the vantage is nice even though idunno anything about it lol. Surprisingly it has its own hard case with Vantage painted on it diagonally. It’s semi hollow w two f holes, the neck and headstock are the same red color, it’s fully bound; it looks like it’s never been taken out the case and it feels solid, I’ve always thought Japan puts out quality instruments, I just Don’t know anything about the brand. I’ve lost my train of thought lol I think I just wanted to say that I like the color
Pickup output seems to be a matter of personal taste. *It's easy to boost a low output pickup but hard to clean up a high output pickup.* In my experience, the hotter the pickup, the darker and more compressed the sound, so ceramic magnets are usually used to brighten things up. For that reason, I don't really like super hot pickups like Invaders. For passives, I think 12-16k or so is fine with the preamp boosted to taste for distortion. I find things like Duncan Customs are great for rhythm because they produce a little more clarity than something like a Duncan Distortion would. By the time you're quad tracking rhythms that little bit of extra clarity helps the mix. 4-6 Duncan Distortion rhythm tracks are a bit fizzy. The higher output stuff I like for soloing. Full Shreds are a good midpoint between saturation and clarity. I've also had great success with the Gibson 498t as an all rounder. For death metal and drop tunings most of the time I use EMGs with the 24 Volt Mod or Duncan Blackouts. That said the Slug seems cool if you want a very specific colored sound, usually found in stoner and doom stuff. There's a difference in tone I think between running a low output pickup through a high gain amp and a high output pickup through a low to mid gain amp. Maxing everything (pickup output, pedal boost, amp gain) in my experience just produces a fuzzy oversaturated mess. Overall, hot wound pickups made more sense before we had infinite gain. Now that we can saturate to infinity in our DAWs or boost with pedals, high output pickups seem less important, but they still have their place in certain applications. For me, that's usually melodies and soloing when I need a compressed, bright sound to cut through a mix. Edit: Trying this in parallel instead of split may have cleaned it up even more. Parallel and split don't always sound the same. In my experience parallel is the cleanest but has the lowest output. Single coil introduces a little bit of noise, something I actually like just a bit in the tone because it sounds more like a vintage Strat. I highly recommend the Seymour Duncan Triple Shots and a phase switch on the neck pickup. All of that is a pain to hook up, but they can really give your guitar more sounds and switching to parallel/out of phase can really clean things up.
Everything here is good suggestions and info for those looking to maximize different aspects of their tone! I am very much a fan of keeping the gain relatively low on the amp itself and pushing more signal on the input. At louder volumes this seems to make the amp feel more dynamic as the power section pushes the speaker and I find my self barely touching the EQ on the amp in most cases.
@@BaritoneGoatStudio What I've found is different gear combinations will force one to use different settings, but eventually your ear will lead you to a very similar tone. That said, some setups are more optimal than others. I didn't care much for a Duncan Screamin' Demon or a Gibson 57 Classic in the bridge. Alnico IIs especially can feel like they need a little help to get chunky, but they are great for hybrid picking and country I think since they have great clarity and expressiveness. I think they work well with a Plexi. I'm also a big fan of the Parallel Axis line, which I think improves on the Duncan Distortion sound. Same tone, but more clarity. Last, if a neck pickup isn't matching the bridge for me, I sometimes try a bridge pickup version of a lower output pickup set to match. Duncan Alnico 2 Pro bridge with a Custom 5 comes to mind. Also Gibson 57 Classic Plus with a 498t. Next I'm trying a JB in the neck with a Dimebucker. I always found the JB a little mushy but it splits and does parallel well. I'm hoping it will sound great for a hot solo tone from the neck, something I don't do much as I usually save the neck for cleans. Thanks for checking out my post. :)
A single pup LP Special style is the guitar of my dreams. Hope ESP makes a left-handed version! And yes, the Slug is that overdrive-in-a-can humbucker we've all been waiting for...
Yeah the left handed models need to be more prevalent in the market overall. This style seems like it would be easy to flip from a production standpoint.
I'd like to hear the pickups at different volume levels. AFAIK, what's happening with these overwound pickups is they're saturating at the input of the amp, so turning down the gain doesn't clean them up. Rolling them off with the volume knob should work better to clean up the tone. A drawback is you lose some high end on your clean tones. A treble bleed mod on the pot should address that issue, though. Overwounds are a nice option to get the most out of your amp. The one in this vid looks like a good one! I really appreciate the selection of guitar, too. Perfect for this kind of pickup replacement.
The stock volume pot on this guitar has an ok taper. I assume it is linear. When messing with it, the SLUG seems to not clean up much before the signal just drops. Kind of all or nothing. You are correct to assume that the top end softens pretty quickly as well. I think pickups in the low 20k range have better attenuation of the signal. The guitar overall is super nice for the price point.
I dig it. It seems to be voiced better than any of the stock pickups I come across. The cheap Epiphone pickups seem to be more PAF like. These actually have great midrange and response. I like the slug, but probably would keep the stock pickup if I was only buying the guitar!
dude i saw your post the other day, didn't know you had a channel. this one reminds me of my x2n, just a bit too much to handle and needs backed off the strings a bit to calm it down, the stock pickup to me sounded pretty good, the slug is definitely a monster, but i like it.
Crazy. I never looked one up or watched a video on one but I just put one of these in my Nighthawk because why not and this video shows up. Definitely worth the headache of slanting the pickup for that guitar. Gnarly pickup
That is quite the commitment. Did you slant the coils yourself? Or have someone do it? I have passed on certain Multiscale guitars because of slanted pickups, but always wondered if it was something I could figure out. 🤔
@@BaritoneGoatStudio I did it myself. Most humbuckers can be separated once the tape is off…except this one. This one has a solid billet around the two coils. I had to dremel a slot out so the coils could shift. Then I just put it back together with some wax and friction tape. The pickup ring on a nighthawk is metal so and this pickup is bigger than regular humbuckers so I had to grind out the hole so it would fit. Tons of work but way worth it.
If you're still in the market for a "best bang for your buck" LP-style guitar then maybe you might want to check out an old Agile 3100/3200? I got one used for like $300 some years back, and honestly? I'd stack it up against an actual Gibson that costs 10Xs as much today. As for the Slug itself, the difference between it and the stock pup is pretty night and day if you ask me. The stock pup sounded duller, by comparison. That, and it seemed to have this big, bloated, flubbing sounding congestion going on around the 200s - 300s. Was also impressed by just how good the Slug was sounding when split as well.
I think the split on the slug might be a secret weapon especially for hard rock tones. It gets you 80% there without even adding an overdrive. The stock pickup isn’t tight, and slightly boxy, but I have heard much worse is other guitars. I wonder if you just took off the cover if it would clear up a little. I always find the covers soften the tone a little.
Beautiful instrument, the most important features to me is the stability of the neck, fretwork, action, sustain, overall sound, the only one pickup and a single volume is all you need to Rock N Roll, I would prefer EMG on mahogany
I'm not sure of the quality of the ones in this guitar but it might be worth looking into a better pot and cap for that hot of a pick up. I have a mahogany SG style guitar with a Dimarzio X2N in it and the pot and cap were cheap so I eventually replaced them and it really brought the X2N to life
@@TeleGuy93 this comes with a pretty standard alpha brand push/pull pot. No cap, since there is no tone knob. The pot reads about 504k resistance. So just a hint over spec but within tolerance. I do have some bournes on hand though, and I have one that is closer to 520k and on that is around 470k. I have been thinking about doing a test between them to see how much they would affect a pickups tone. A pickup like this might have a dramatic shift from darker to bright with those values.
Would be interesting to hear it through a super clean amp with really high headroom. I used to have an HH half stack from the 80's and played some 8 string bareknuckles into the clean channel and no matter how hard I hit the strings it was pristine. Great demo and that slug sounds amazing for high gain!
I’ll have one. I personally love the stock pup. I’ve always liked esp’s proprietary pups. They sound a lot like a jb/jazz set. If I DID change it, I put a bill Lawrence in it. That’s my go to. I don’t like that slug pickup at all. Different strokes I guess. But I’m diggin the guitar and I’m glad I got to hear the slug. Cool video man.
@@user-py3cl5el4i the slug is definitely a love or hate kind of sound. Very over the top and more compression with high gain than I think people might suspect. As I mess with the height and try different applications, it is surprising me with what it can do.
@@BaritoneGoatStudio it definitely does what it does very well. I bet it would be a good candidate for a guitar that has a dull sound. It would turn it into a fire breather for sure. Lol
I recently bought a TE-201 with the same LH150B pickup, and it is incredibly microphonic. In TE-201, the pickup is covered, and that's probably my problem. I may try to redo the wax potting as the pickup tone isn't bad.
@@BazonBlades I have done a couple repots on cheaper pickups. It was very effective at getting rid of noise both times. The one that came with this is well potted it seems. I ended up wiping some residual wax from around the screws after I peeled off the plastic.
@BaritoneGoatStudio , it sounds like your pickup was correctly potted. I am also thinking about dropping in an EMG 85. I recently bought one of the new Jackson USA Soloists, and it came with the 81/85 combo. I hadn't played through EMG's in about 5 years, and I am falling in love all over again.
@BazonBlades I still contend the EMG81 is the sound of metal. Every time I play one I am taken back to my early days of playing and wanting an explorer outfitted with EMGs!
@BaritoneGoatStudio , I went through a phase in the 90's and early 2000's where I was exclusively using EMG's. Probably about 20 years' worth. But I slowly moved away from them. Stepping back into EMG's is kinda like stepping back into a perfect fitting and broken in pair of shoes. I've also got a set of Guitar Fetish Redactive moderns waiting to go into a Firefly LP copy that is a fantastic guitar except for the factory pickups. I'm eager to see what they sound like as well.
I have a similar pup from GFS that I put in an Ibanez GRG131. I think it measures around 16k or so and it seems to handle dropped tunings with alot better clarity than the stock ones did. Nowhere near the specs of the Slug but, same idea I think. I still use EMG 84-85 setup in my Schecter for most stuff though.
It sounds cool but $200 😯 I'll just get the X2N for now The slug does sound sweet but the price not so sweet 😬 awesome guitar and awesome review man keep rocking 😎🎸👍
@@phillramirez8323 the production version is a little cheaper than the custom shop version. But they are bit more than their standard models. $149 USD for the production models. X2N are great options for a hot rail pickup.
@@BaritoneGoatStudio 🫡nice, I was thinking of getting some p-rails 4 my Jazzmaster and the black Winter set for a project, thanks for the info on the slug. I will definitely get it but when I get a little bit more moneys. Keep rocking man 😎
@@Tysandifer Oh nice. I was just going to use the B.W. for the neck. I'm trying to get a crossover/thrash band started. Thanks for the tip man on that pickup 😎🤟
I hate when people say "Here's my clean tone", and it ISN'T "clean" at all, it's already WELL into Distortion... However, when he tried the coil split, it ACTUALLY was pretty clean... People can say "Well, that's just the CHARACTER of the amp..." And yeah, it's the character of the DISTORTION of the amp. Now, I generally dig Fender style amps, so maybe I'm just outta my element here, but when someone claims that an amp has a lot of "headroom", that means that you SHOULD be able to get a GENUINELY clean tone out of it, WITHOUT it distorting... But I will say that with that Slug, he WAS able to get an absolutely BRUTAL sound...
@@ck2music712 normally this amp is fairly clean compared to a Mesa or 5150, especially with active pickups. But even the stock pickup was pushing the amp a bit more than I expected. The slug wasn’t ever going to be clean. Ha ha. If I can grab one used , I am going to get my hand on a JC120.
The clean on it is non existent like u said but it does have BALLS !! But for the money I would take the stock pickup over the slug if I’m being honest it’s just more usable
@@thepainfulreality for sure. If it wasn’t for my curiosity… the stock pickup would be a solid one! And there are other pickups out there that do what I like slightly better, but it is nice have something a little different on hand as well.
@@numbersabcdefg not sure I would dedicate a video to just the Slug and a rectifier (I own a triple and a single). But, I was thinking about doing a video looking at how different amps respond to different pickup types. Passive, active, high output, medium output, vintage. The Slug would be featured and I would probably use one of the rectifiers. I definitely have ideas.
Love simple guitars, have a Charvel with HS, one volume, one switch… also, there’s no such word as Heighth people, like Eighth… it’s Height, hard T at the end. Width, Depth and HEIGHT, lol - just being a dick \m/ rock on my dude.
@@oldguyjammin9732 oh man, now you are bringing me back to my cultural linguistics class. Spent an entire week on dialectical transformative speech. The word high is one that already has an “h” at the end so the “t” is stuck on the end. But, since it is a word used to describe the physical state of something, it has analogy with other words like long, wide and deep. Interestingly enough, the word weigh and weight never succumb to this type of leveling. You never hear “weighth” used in colloquial speech. The thought is that since it has a homonym in “wait” there is more emphasis to pronounce it this way a separate it from similar kinds of words. I definitely use both dialects of height even though I know it should have a hard T. Not sure where I picked it up, I have lived in California the whole time. 🤷🏻♂️
These are not really any hotter than many other pickups. The dc values just act like an eq after a while. My fave sweet spot for overly hot pickups is the 22K range. Gets the cool thickness… but still open enough. The SLUG just didn’t do the note separation I wanted.
@@PetParadiseVB right. The pickup isn’t as loud or clipping my input as much as others I have had like the Blackend black winter. It seems to be like you said an EQ of sorts. I do like natural compression and response to the pick I am getting. It is different from anything else I own. I actually really like the coil split sound on this which is in the realm of 21k, but not hum cancelling unfortunately.
Yea they do! I linked it below. The Slug is now made in regular production though. There are still CS versions available on some sites, but I don’t think they fulfill order through the CS for them anymore. They have other custom models though! customshop.seymourduncan.com
This is just stupid. I remember when the Screamin Demon came out and this is what everyone expected from the way it sounded. Theres a massive lesson there.
@@mattvdh I knew someone was going to say that! I actually really like the stock pickup. I think overall it would be a more versatile pickup. I think the slug might be nice for certain types of recording or maybe even lower turning, but in a live setting the stock pickup would probably have better presence across different amps. More applicability for sure.
Hard to know exactly what it sounds like on CZcams (compression?) Blended with flaws created by microphone and the speakers on your phone/PC. Lots of fidelity loss
@@cromBumny I definitely recommend people listen with headphones if possible. Studio monitors are obviously best. Phone speakers are typically the worst. Also there is a setting on YT called “stable volume”. Turn that off since it is a secondary limiter YT applies to videos now to keep volume spikes from occurring. But, the ACC that YT uses to convert audio from WAV/MP4 doesn’t really add much audible compression these days and what is does affect is extreme high end mostly. Momentary loudness, or LUFS being too high can also cause a flattened audio effect when YT normalizes the volume to -14. The days of the underwater audio effect are gone. I remember when video resolution would dictate audio fidelity on YT. That was the worst.
😂 now that would be absurd! Luckily the production models of these only come in at $149. Still a bit more than a standard JB. But the copper alone probably accounts for it.
Everyone wants a piece! Ha ha. ESP already went through that era of lawsuits. The ECs have a shape that is different enough not to be confused with an LP from a legal standpoint. PRS settled the single cut debate with them in the early 2000s and now we know that Gibson can’t go after every single it design. Only thing they really own currently is their open book headstock.
Bought one of these, if you play with the gain and pickup height, you can get a cool "teethy" metallic sound. Gain at 4 and volume at 8, sounds cool (no pedals, just fingers, pickup, wire + amp)
The LH-150B was really not bad. Both pickups just have their own character and I would use these for different music styles. The Seymoure Duncan Slug sounds massive. The guitar looks good and it's not expensive. It's a good choice. Great video!
The stock pickup is solid. If it wasn’t for my desire to try out the Slug and tinker with guitars, the guitar would likely stay stock! I do like the aggressive tone and natural compression of the Slug!
Great review, Sir. Many things I've never even considered. Thanks for your work. I hope there's a beer fridge in that garage.
I actually really like it split. I could only imagine the balls it would have if you ran it parallel.
Sounds pretty freaking awesome! Creating a pickup with that high resistance without making it sound like a muddy mess can't be easy. SD did a great job with this one. Sounds like it doesn't need an OD to drive the amp, but with the Lichtlaerm (King in Yellow I'm guessing) it becomes really tight and just sweet awesomness.
@@nj1255 yep! KIY all the way. On the top of my overdrive board for a reason!
Sounds great for Doom and that stoner metal vibe. I’d love to heart it while playing some Mastodon or Down or even BLS stuff.
@@philosopherofkaos8829 I think it needs to go into something that can get a little lower in the tuning… it would work with the whole Baroness, Mastodon vibe! I was also listening to some Crowbar while installing it. It has the right kind of crunch for anything that needs to sound big!
If I decide to move the pickup into another guitar at some point, it will be a baritone for sure. I just need to find a single pickup baritone that doesn’t cost as much as 2 months mortgage. 😂 they all seem to be custom builds these days.
I have an old Japanese guitar, it’s called a vantage entertainer and it’s got that same kind of really glossy translucent red finish n it’s beautiful. I Don’t know a lot about the guitar, it was my dads n I got it after he passed a few years ago (RIP Dad, I love you and miss you) that he got in like the 70s but never used it, he liked acoustics, but the vantage is nice even though idunno anything about it lol. Surprisingly it has its own hard case with Vantage painted on it diagonally. It’s semi hollow w two f holes, the neck and headstock are the same red color, it’s fully bound; it looks like it’s never been taken out the case and it feels solid, I’ve always thought Japan puts out quality instruments, I just Don’t know anything about the brand.
I’ve lost my train of thought lol I think I just wanted to say that I like the color
Pickup output seems to be a matter of personal taste. *It's easy to boost a low output pickup but hard to clean up a high output pickup.*
In my experience, the hotter the pickup, the darker and more compressed the sound, so ceramic magnets are usually used to brighten things up.
For that reason, I don't really like super hot pickups like Invaders. For passives, I think 12-16k or so is fine with the preamp boosted to taste for distortion.
I find things like Duncan Customs are great for rhythm because they produce a little more clarity than something like a Duncan Distortion would. By the time you're quad tracking rhythms that little bit of extra clarity helps the mix. 4-6 Duncan Distortion rhythm tracks are a bit fizzy.
The higher output stuff I like for soloing. Full Shreds are a good midpoint between saturation and clarity. I've also had great success with the Gibson 498t as an all rounder.
For death metal and drop tunings most of the time I use EMGs with the 24 Volt Mod or Duncan Blackouts.
That said the Slug seems cool if you want a very specific colored sound, usually found in stoner and doom stuff. There's a difference in tone I think between running a low output pickup through a high gain amp and a high output pickup through a low to mid gain amp.
Maxing everything (pickup output, pedal boost, amp gain) in my experience just produces a fuzzy oversaturated mess.
Overall, hot wound pickups made more sense before we had infinite gain. Now that we can saturate to infinity in our DAWs or boost with pedals, high output pickups seem less important, but they still have their place in certain applications.
For me, that's usually melodies and soloing when I need a compressed, bright sound to cut through a mix.
Edit: Trying this in parallel instead of split may have cleaned it up even more. Parallel and split don't always sound the same. In my experience parallel is the cleanest but has the lowest output. Single coil introduces a little bit of noise, something I actually like just a bit in the tone because it sounds more like a vintage Strat.
I highly recommend the Seymour Duncan Triple Shots and a phase switch on the neck pickup. All of that is a pain to hook up, but they can really give your guitar more sounds and switching to parallel/out of phase can really clean things up.
Everything here is good suggestions and info for those looking to maximize different aspects of their tone! I am very much a fan of keeping the gain relatively low on the amp itself and pushing more signal on the input. At louder volumes this seems to make the amp feel more dynamic as the power section pushes the speaker and I find my self barely touching the EQ on the amp in most cases.
@@BaritoneGoatStudio What I've found is different gear combinations will force one to use different settings, but eventually your ear will lead you to a very similar tone. That said, some setups are more optimal than others.
I didn't care much for a Duncan Screamin' Demon or a Gibson 57 Classic in the bridge. Alnico IIs especially can feel like they need a little help to get chunky, but they are great for hybrid picking and country I think since they have great clarity and expressiveness. I think they work well with a Plexi.
I'm also a big fan of the Parallel Axis line, which I think improves on the Duncan Distortion sound. Same tone, but more clarity.
Last, if a neck pickup isn't matching the bridge for me, I sometimes try a bridge pickup version of a lower output pickup set to match. Duncan Alnico 2 Pro bridge with a Custom 5 comes to mind. Also Gibson 57 Classic Plus with a 498t.
Next I'm trying a JB in the neck with a Dimebucker. I always found the JB a little mushy but it splits and does parallel well.
I'm hoping it will sound great for a hot solo tone from the neck, something I don't do much as I usually save the neck for cleans.
Thanks for checking out my post. :)
A single pup LP Special style is the guitar of my dreams. Hope ESP makes a left-handed version! And yes, the Slug is that overdrive-in-a-can humbucker we've all been waiting for...
LTD has the NW-44, and I believe it comes in lefty
Yeah the left handed models need to be more prevalent in the market overall. This style seems like it would be easy to flip from a production standpoint.
I'd like to hear the pickups at different volume levels.
AFAIK, what's happening with these overwound pickups is they're saturating at the input of the amp, so turning down the gain doesn't clean them up.
Rolling them off with the volume knob should work better to clean up the tone.
A drawback is you lose some high end on your clean tones.
A treble bleed mod on the pot should address that issue, though.
Overwounds are a nice option to get the most out of your amp. The one in this vid looks like a good one!
I really appreciate the selection of guitar, too. Perfect for this kind of pickup replacement.
The right over wound pickup cleans up great with the volume. The slug does not lol.
Motor city nuke, wagner ironman, warpig… all roll off surprisingly well. But the slug… not so much. I wanted to like it
The stock volume pot on this guitar has an ok taper. I assume it is linear. When messing with it, the SLUG seems to not clean up much before the signal just drops. Kind of all or nothing. You are correct to assume that the top end softens pretty quickly as well. I think pickups in the low 20k range have better attenuation of the signal. The guitar overall is super nice for the price point.
Love it! Thanks for showing us that guitar and pick up!!!
The stock pickup in this guitar is imho very cool! I have a couple of them originally discovered it in one of my ltd’s then picked up a couple others
I dig it. It seems to be voiced better than any of the stock pickups I come across. The cheap Epiphone pickups seem to be more PAF like. These actually have great midrange and response. I like the slug, but probably would keep the stock pickup if I was only buying the guitar!
dude i saw your post the other day, didn't know you had a channel. this one reminds me of my x2n, just a bit too much to handle and needs backed off the strings a bit to calm it down, the stock pickup to me sounded pretty good, the slug is definitely a monster, but i like it.
I was thinking the same thing man and the colors you could pick for the x2n also 😎🎸👍
Awesome. Thanks for the review!
Crazy. I never looked one up or watched a video on one but I just put one of these in my Nighthawk because why not and this video shows up. Definitely worth the headache of slanting the pickup for that guitar. Gnarly pickup
That is quite the commitment. Did you slant the coils yourself? Or have someone do it? I have passed on certain Multiscale guitars because of slanted pickups, but always wondered if it was something I could figure out. 🤔
@@BaritoneGoatStudio I did it myself. Most humbuckers can be separated once the tape is off…except this one. This one has a solid billet around the two coils. I had to dremel a slot out so the coils could shift. Then I just put it back together with some wax and friction tape. The pickup ring on a nighthawk is metal so and this pickup is bigger than regular humbuckers so I had to grind out the hole so it would fit. Tons of work but way worth it.
If you're still in the market for a "best bang for your buck" LP-style guitar then maybe you might want to check out an old Agile 3100/3200? I got one used for like $300 some years back, and honestly? I'd stack it up against an actual Gibson that costs 10Xs as much today.
As for the Slug itself, the difference between it and the stock pup is pretty night and day if you ask me. The stock pup sounded duller, by comparison. That, and it seemed to have this big, bloated, flubbing sounding congestion going on around the 200s - 300s.
Was also impressed by just how good the Slug was sounding when split as well.
I think the split on the slug might be a secret weapon especially for hard rock tones. It gets you 80% there without even adding an overdrive. The stock pickup isn’t tight, and slightly boxy, but I have heard much worse is other guitars. I wonder if you just took off the cover if it would clear up a little. I always find the covers soften the tone a little.
The trick is to use the Slug neck pickup in the bridge.. Still 22k DCR, but it sounds like a Black Winter with higher output.
Might have to try that myself because the Black Winter is one of my favorite pickup.
Beautiful instrument, the most important features to me is the stability of the neck, fretwork, action, sustain, overall sound, the only one pickup and a single volume is all you need to Rock N Roll, I would prefer EMG on mahogany
I'm not sure of the quality of the ones in this guitar but it might be worth looking into a better pot and cap for that hot of a pick up. I have a mahogany SG style guitar with a Dimarzio X2N in it and the pot and cap were cheap so I eventually replaced them and it really brought the X2N to life
@@TeleGuy93 this comes with a pretty standard alpha brand push/pull pot. No cap, since there is no tone knob. The pot reads about 504k resistance. So just a hint over spec but within tolerance. I do have some bournes on hand though, and I have one that is closer to 520k and on that is around 470k. I have been thinking about doing a test between them to see how much they would affect a pickups tone. A pickup like this might have a dramatic shift from darker to bright with those values.
Sound like disturbs guitar sound I thank the lowering it down made it sound better
Would be interesting to hear it through a super clean amp with really high headroom. I used to have an HH half stack from the 80's and played some 8 string bareknuckles into the clean channel and no matter how hard I hit the strings it was pristine. Great demo and that slug sounds amazing for high gain!
Part of me wants to have a Roland JC-120 just for its crystal clean tone. The ENGL seemed pretty clean until I got the Slug. 😂
That's a nice pickup, really cuts through
Sounds good
I’ll have one. I personally love the stock pup. I’ve always liked esp’s proprietary pups. They sound a lot like a jb/jazz set. If I DID change it, I put a bill Lawrence in it. That’s my go to. I don’t like that slug pickup at all. Different strokes I guess. But I’m diggin the guitar and I’m glad I got to hear the slug. Cool video man.
@@user-py3cl5el4i the slug is definitely a love or hate kind of sound. Very over the top and more compression with high gain than I think people might suspect. As I mess with the height and try different applications, it is surprising me with what it can do.
@@BaritoneGoatStudio it definitely does what it does very well. I bet it would be a good candidate for a guitar that has a dull sound. It would turn it into a fire breather for sure. Lol
You need to try "mallagoli napalm" on the bridge.... killer (not expansive) brazilian 1st line caps!
I have the dragonfire quad rails. Theyre 24s
That is one Kick-Ass pickup I guarantee it
Sounds awesome
I like to angle my pickup height so its close to the low string and far away from the high strings
I usually have them within 0.5mm of each other but I tend to back off the low end and raise the top end.
I do the exact opposite lol
I recently bought a TE-201 with the same LH150B pickup, and it is incredibly microphonic. In TE-201, the pickup is covered, and that's probably my problem. I may try to redo the wax potting as the pickup tone isn't bad.
@@BazonBlades I have done a couple repots on cheaper pickups. It was very effective at getting rid of noise both times. The one that came with this is well potted it seems. I ended up wiping some residual wax from around the screws after I peeled off the plastic.
@BaritoneGoatStudio , it sounds like your pickup was correctly potted.
I am also thinking about dropping in an EMG 85. I recently bought one of the new Jackson USA Soloists, and it came with the 81/85 combo. I hadn't played through EMG's in about 5 years, and I am falling in love all over again.
@BazonBlades I still contend the EMG81 is the sound of metal. Every time I play one I am taken back to my early days of playing and wanting an explorer outfitted with EMGs!
@BaritoneGoatStudio , I went through a phase in the 90's and early 2000's where I was exclusively using EMG's. Probably about 20 years' worth. But I slowly moved away from them. Stepping back into EMG's is kinda like stepping back into a perfect fitting and broken in pair of shoes.
I've also got a set of Guitar Fetish Redactive moderns waiting to go into a Firefly LP copy that is a fantastic guitar except for the factory pickups. I'm eager to see what they sound like as well.
I have a similar pup from GFS that I put in an Ibanez GRG131. I think it measures around 16k or so and it seems to handle dropped tunings with alot better clarity than the stock ones did. Nowhere near the specs of the Slug but, same idea I think. I still use EMG 84-85 setup in my Schecter for most stuff though.
EMG! Still the sound of metal and the sound I grew up with.
Great demo btw
Alegree has a 54K output pickup. I have one in my Melody Maker
saw a KDH video on that one. Sounds even fatter than this one.
@@BaritoneGoatStudio it is nuts man. i love it. makes everything THAT MUCH HEAVIER. you should get one and do a comparison.
It sounds cool but $200 😯 I'll just get the X2N for now The slug does sound sweet but the price not so sweet 😬 awesome guitar and awesome review man keep rocking 😎🎸👍
@@phillramirez8323 the production version is a little cheaper than the custom shop version. But they are bit more than their standard models. $149 USD for the production models. X2N are great options for a hot rail pickup.
@@BaritoneGoatStudio 🫡nice, I was thinking of getting some p-rails 4 my Jazzmaster and the black Winter set for a project, thanks for the info on the slug. I will definitely get it but when I get a little bit more moneys. Keep rocking man 😎
Getcha a lace deathbucker, recommend that and the black winter
@@Tysandifer Oh nice. I was just going to use the B.W. for the neck. I'm trying to get a crossover/thrash band started. Thanks for the tip man on that pickup 😎🤟
Ya, Thats fuckin brutal.
I hate when people say "Here's my clean tone", and it ISN'T "clean" at all, it's already WELL into Distortion... However, when he tried the coil split, it ACTUALLY was pretty clean... People can say "Well, that's just the CHARACTER of the amp..." And yeah, it's the character of the DISTORTION of the amp. Now, I generally dig Fender style amps, so maybe I'm just outta my element here, but when someone claims that an amp has a lot of "headroom", that means that you SHOULD be able to get a GENUINELY clean tone out of it, WITHOUT it distorting... But I will say that with that Slug, he WAS able to get an absolutely BRUTAL sound...
@@ck2music712 normally this amp is fairly clean compared to a Mesa or 5150, especially with active pickups. But even the stock pickup was pushing the amp a bit more than I expected. The slug wasn’t ever going to be clean. Ha ha.
If I can grab one used , I am going to get my hand on a JC120.
The clean on it is non existent like u said but it does have BALLS !! But for the money I would take the stock pickup over the slug if I’m being honest it’s just more usable
@@thepainfulreality for sure. If it wasn’t for my curiosity… the stock pickup would be a solid one! And there are other pickups out there that do what I like slightly better, but it is nice have something a little different on hand as well.
i want the 01FT
Man review a Lace deathbucker, best thing ever
@@Tysandifer still haven’t got any Lace pickups yet. I know some who wear by them.
Lace figured out a really cheap way to make a humbucker with those .
Are you going to do a video with Dual Rec? And 48k
@@numbersabcdefg not sure I would dedicate a video to just the Slug and a rectifier (I own a triple and a single). But, I was thinking about doing a video looking at how different amps respond to different pickup types. Passive, active, high output, medium output, vintage. The Slug would be featured and I would probably use one of the rectifiers. I definitely have ideas.
I like your hat
Love simple guitars, have a Charvel with HS, one volume, one switch… also, there’s no such word as Heighth people, like Eighth… it’s Height, hard T at the end. Width, Depth and HEIGHT, lol - just being a dick \m/ rock on my dude.
@@oldguyjammin9732 oh man, now you are bringing me back to my cultural linguistics class. Spent an entire week on dialectical transformative speech. The word high is one that already has an “h” at the end so the “t” is stuck on the end. But, since it is a word used to describe the physical state of something, it has analogy with other words like long, wide and deep. Interestingly enough, the word weigh and weight never succumb to this type of leveling. You never hear “weighth” used in colloquial speech. The thought is that since it has a homonym in “wait” there is more emphasis to pronounce it this way a separate it from similar kinds of words. I definitely use both dialects of height even though I know it should have a hard T. Not sure where I picked it up, I have lived in California the whole time. 🤷🏻♂️
the split was NICE
These are not really any hotter than many other pickups. The dc values just act like an eq after a while.
My fave sweet spot for overly hot pickups is the 22K range. Gets the cool thickness… but still open enough.
The SLUG just didn’t do the note separation I wanted.
@@PetParadiseVB right. The pickup isn’t as loud or clipping my input as much as others I have had like the Blackend black winter. It seems to be like you said an EQ of sorts. I do like natural compression and response to the pick I am getting. It is different from anything else I own. I actually really like the coil split sound on this which is in the realm of 21k, but not hum cancelling unfortunately.
That thing puurrrs
I completly agree with you, 2mm between the strings and pole pieces is nearly perfect🤘
SOUNDS LIKE A BIG GUITARR
Does Seymour Duncan have a custom shop website
Yea they do! I linked it below. The Slug is now made in regular production though. There are still CS versions available on some sites, but I don’t think they fulfill order through the CS for them anymore. They have other custom models though!
customshop.seymourduncan.com
This is just stupid. I remember when the Screamin Demon came out and this is what everyone expected from the way it sounded. Theres a massive lesson there.
@@springbloom5940 and the demon is only like 11-12k resistance.
@@BaritoneGoatStudio
I got mine used after someone returned it. Thin and boxy until you dime it out on a stage and can still hear every note.
USES A EQ PEDAL
TOO
Damn
I’m leaning towards absurd
That clean tone is a bit much for most applications.
Sounds like Seether
1st pickup sounded better imo
@@mattvdh I knew someone was going to say that! I actually really like the stock pickup. I think overall it would be a more versatile pickup. I think the slug might be nice for certain types of recording or maybe even lower turning, but in a live setting the stock pickup would probably have better presence across different amps. More applicability for sure.
Hard to know exactly what it sounds like on CZcams (compression?) Blended with flaws created by microphone and the speakers on your phone/PC. Lots of fidelity loss
@@cromBumny I definitely recommend people listen with headphones if possible. Studio monitors are obviously best. Phone speakers are typically the worst. Also there is a setting on YT called “stable volume”. Turn that off since it is a secondary limiter YT applies to videos now to keep volume spikes from occurring.
But, the ACC that YT uses to convert audio from WAV/MP4 doesn’t really add much audible compression these days and what is does affect is extreme high end mostly. Momentary loudness, or LUFS being too high can also cause a flattened audio effect when YT normalizes the volume to -14. The days of the underwater audio effect are gone. I remember when video resolution would dictate audio fidelity on YT. That was the worst.
@@mattvdh the first pickup did have more pick attack
when the pickup costs as much as the guitar lol
😂 now that would be absurd! Luckily the production models of these only come in at $149. Still a bit more than a standard JB. But the copper alone probably accounts for it.
Wide frequencys
So now ltd wants a piece of Gibson. Interesting...
Everyone wants a piece! Ha ha. ESP already went through that era of lawsuits. The ECs have a shape that is different enough not to be confused with an LP from a legal standpoint. PRS settled the single cut debate with them in the early 2000s and now we know that Gibson can’t go after every single it design. Only thing they really own currently is their open book headstock.
where you been the past bjillion months?
Need more playing and less talking.